


Ghost + Collar + Room

by EWM



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Emotional Whump, Gen, Hurt Angus Macgyver (Macgyver 2016), Poor Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Whump, Worried Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), macgyver - Freeform, the ghost - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:27:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26784409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EWM/pseuds/EWM
Summary: Written for the final day of @septembermacgyverwhump ( Any character whump + your favorite villain (canon and/or AU)) (sorry I’m a bit late). Mac wakes up with a bomb around his neck with the Ghost taunting him. This was another one of those weird ideas that came to me 3am, thoughts appreciated. Happy reading and happy thumping!
Relationships: Jack Dalton & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Riley Davis & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Wilt Bozer & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

Mac lay on the floor unconscious in a small room, he was alone. The room had a set of dirty windows which let in the sunlight. His face was on the floor, his blond hair was dirty and revealed a nasty cut where someone had cracked him over the head. He had no weapons, not unusual for Mac, but perhaps more importantly no swiss army knife. That had been taken from him when he was dragged in there. A voice from the walls woke Mac up from his uncomfortable slumber

_“Mr MacGyver! It’s time to wake up. I hope the guard’s didn’t hurt you too badly. I wouldn’t want that big brain of yours damaged”_

Mac awoke with a start, his first thought was of his pounding headache. Gingerly he put his hand on the back of his head and registered the cut and the now at least partly dried blood.

_“It’s only a scratch MacGyver! That’s good! Now to business.”_

Mac was disoriented by the voice, he couldn’t work out where it was coming from. He looked around to see a microphone or camera or speakers but registered nothing.

_“What do you want with me? Who are you?”_ Mac asked the empty room tentatively

_“Now I’m insulted MacGyver, now I’m insulted. The boy wonder doesn’t recognise his greatest enemy? His greatest rival?”_

_“I’ve made a fair few enemies in the last few years and as for rivals. I don’t really go in for that.”_

_“What a wonderful combination of arrogance and humility as I expected of you even after all this time.”_

_“You still haven’t told me your name.”_

_“Don’t you recognise the Ghost when you see him or hear I suppose we’d be more accurate.”_

_“What? You can’t be the Ghost. I saw you die, I saw your body. I stopped you. I know it did. Your reign of terror is over.”_

_“Are you sure though? Did you really see my die? You saw a body, but do you know if it was me? Or is there only one Ghost? Maybe there’s more of me than you think.”_

Mac didn’t respond to the bait, he knew what he saw, the Ghost and all that he had done to Mac were etched in his memory. Pena’s death and countless others were all buried deep in Mac’s mind as reminders of his failures, that he had taken so long to catch the Ghost and that so many had died as a result. He couldn’t be back after all this time, there was only one Ghost and he was dead.

_“So silent, Mr MacGyver, so disappointing. I’ve got something that will excite you boy wonder. If you’ll note, you’ve got an intriguing device strapped around your neck. Go ahead have a feel of it.’_

Mac tentatively put his hands around his neck, he had been so dazed when he woke he hadn’t really registered it. But to his horror, the voice was right, a metal collar was clipped around his neck, it was rough as if handmade, he could feel tiny parts and the lines of circuit boards that had been bent around his throat.

_“Yes Mr MacGyver, have a good poke, although maybe not too hard. What you have around your neck is perhaps my finest creation. A custom-made high explosive, rigged to go off in several different ways, too much movement, too much fiddling and perhaps my favourite a distance register. That’s right, if you leave this room, if you try and call for help it’ll go offer, no help from your friends, from your precious Phoenix Foundation.”_

_“You’re lying, you wouldn’t dare. You’re just trying to keep me here.”_

_“Go ahead test it, although it would put an early end to my fun which I would be sad about.”_

Mac immediately moved towards the door and realised it wasn’t locked, he paused, surely the Ghost…no it wasn’t the Ghost. Surely whoever this was, wouldn’t leave an open door for him to walk out.

_“Not so confident are you now MacGyver? Good that’s sensible, my challenge to you is disarm this bomb. If you don’t, not only will your life be lost, but ooh at least two blocks of L.A. maybe more. Why don’t you look out of those windows?”_

Mac moved towards the dirty windows and saw that this room was inside an abandoned building right in the middle of L.A. The area was packed full of hundreds of people, if this was a bomb, if this was real, this could kill hundreds of people, potentially thousands. He fell backwards and gulped, he’d had diffused so many different bombs in his life, all shapes and sizes. But there was one thing they had in common, he could actually see them, here, he couldn’t see it, he could only feel the components and those he wasn’t that sure of himself. He had no idea how he was going to get out of this.

_“Why are you doing this to me?”_ Mac asked the empty room

_“Oh what a question, you’re the boy wonder. You’ve thwarted me so many times, I had to come up with something. I finally realised, this was it, how could even you diffuse a bomb strapped to your own neck? It’s so perfect. As I said my finest work, I can’t wait to see how you get out of this or not. Either way it’ll be very exciting. Goodbye!”_

_“Wait!”_

_“Yes MacGyver?”_

_“How long have I got?”_

_“Oh I can’t give you all the answers, if you’re smart enough boy wonder you’ll be able to figure it out for yourself and if not. Oh well you’ll know what’ll happen. As I said goodbye.”_

_“Wait!”_

But the voice was gone and Mac was alone with an explosive device strapped to his neck primed to go off at any moment, a pounding headache, no knife, no back up of any kind and no real clue how he was going to get himself out of this.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've finally managed to update this! Blame Whumptober for distracting me :D Mac inches ever closer to figuring out what kind of bomb is attached to his neck and makes a horrible discovery. Let me know what you think!

After having only, a minor panic attack, Mac’s logical brain did kick into gear. He wasn’t nick named wunderkind in the army for nothing. Firstly, he knew in order to disarm this bomb he’d need to be able to see it. The Ghost or whoever the crazy person was behind the camera was talking through a microphone and he could clearly see him, so that meant a camera of some kind somewhere, so in theory at that metal and plastic and reflective surfaces. Mac got on his knees and felt around the edges of the floor, looking for any space, nook or cranny which would indicate wiring or some kind of connection, he found nothing. He kept going running his hands up the lines of the walls, one, two, three and the fourth line of the wall. On the fourth connecting line of the wall, he finally registered something, it was miniscule, he didn’t even really see it initially, his finger picked up on something sharp. When he stretched upwards, he found a tiny piece of copper wiring sticking out in the corner of the wall, as he looked again, he began to trace the line of the wiring. He saw that it went along the top of the wall and then cut down in the top half of the wall, everything had been freshly plastered over and then covered in dust, difficult to spot. It explained the lack of light in the room, in regular sunlight, most people would have been able to pick it up, but not in this messy, dirty, half-light.

If he squinted, he could just about see the lines of a long rectangle in the wall, the wall was dusty and deteriorating despite it’s new plaster job. In the absence of his knife, Mac used his fingers and nails to pick at the plaster. It was slow work as he was worried about what components would be behind the plaster. He thought the odds were it was a camera, but it could be something far worse. He finally managed to trace a gap around the strange rectangle in the wall, his fingers were raw and covered in dust and his neck ached from the weight on the bomb. But he was ready to lift the plaster away, he placed his fingers on either side of the rectangle and pulled. It was a tiny lay of stucco and plaster so it came away quickly. He put the rapidly crumbling plaster down and looked inside the hole. He could see two silver boxes, one was huge and supported on plywood struts, the other was much smaller and had what looked like toggle switches, thirty in total. Mac’s heart sank a little bit when he saw it, the design of this bomb was starting to look very familiar. Next to the smaller silver box, lay a phone. It wrang making Mac jump, he grabbed the phone

_“Mr MacGyver! I hope you’ve found my second prize. It took you longer enough, very disappointing. Are you impressed with my second prize? I think it’s rather wonderful and original.”_

_“Why are you doing this? What have I done to you? Why set this up for me?”_

Mac thought if he could keep him talking, he’d be able to get some more information out of him or distract him long enough that the foundation would work out he was missing.

_“I’ve told you already why I’m doing this, this is my greatest creation and you boy wonder are going to solve it or die. Now since you’ve been so good as to find my second special toy I’ll give you a few little hints about it. After all I don’t want it going of too early. Do not move or tilt this bomb, because the mechanism controlling the detonators will set it off at a movement of less than .01 of the open end Ricter scale. Don’t try to flood or gas the bomb. There is a float switch and an atmospheric pressure switch set at 26.00-33.00. Both are attached to detonators. Do not try to take it apart. The flathead screws at the back of the box are also attached to detonators, so I wouldn’t advice touching those either.”_

_“What about the device around my neck? How does that connect up?”_ Mac asked

 _“Now Mr MacGyver, I can’t give you all the clues can I ? You’ll have to work that bit out for yourself, but remember time is of the essence, tick tock, tick tock.”_ And then he wrang off

Mac cursed to himself, but then once again got to work, he flicked the torch on for the phone and the selfie mode for the camera and had a look at exactly what was strapped to his neck. It looked like a large hinged collar, reminiscent of a set of handcuffs. Mac could also see four keyholes that were parallel to his chin and what looked like a shiny metal piece, maybe a magnet on the side as well. He took the camera and placed in different spots around his neck to see the rest of the device and took photos as even he couldn’t turn his head like he was in the exorcist.

Flicking back through the photos he could see a timer, 2 hours, plastic explosive and a trigger and the rest of the circuit of the bomb. What he couldn’t yet work out was exactly how it was linked to the other bomb. Something he’d have to figure and figure out fast. Then he used the geo-location on the phone to work out where he was, he was amazed that this villain hadn’t disabled this. Who knows? Maybe he wanted Mac to find it out? To Mac’s horror he discovered he was right in the middle of town, there were at least three schools in the area and a big museum. On Friday afternoon the area would be packed with people. Finally Mac made a phone call.

_“Matty? Are you there? It’s Mac. We’ve got a serious problem.”_


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been ages since I've been able to update this. Life got in the way! 
> 
> Anyway Boze and Riley are told what's happening to Mac and then arguably do something very stupid in an effort to try and help their friend.

_“I’m sorry you’ve got a what strapped to your neck?_ ” Webber asked Mac

_“A bomb, loaded with C4 if I had to guess and there’s second bomb buried in the wall, they’re connected somehow. If I move too much, if I try and disarm the bomb they’re rigged to go off.”_

_“What kind of blast radius are we talking Mac?”_

_“If I had to guess, the combined explosions could take out half of Los Angeles.”_

Matty had a sharp intake of breath, it was the stuff of which nightmares were made. Mac went on to explain at speed what he wanted from Matty; perimeter, evacuation, everyone at a distance, a command centre at least 10 miles away. No agents, no support, everyone had to get out and the real kicker the two-hour time limit. Webber agreed with most of it, but balked at the notion of Mac facing this on his own, but he absolutely insisted. He finished it by sending Webber a series of photos of the bomb around his neck and in front of him with instructions to Riley to try and find out as much as possible. Then he rang off.

Webber swore and increased her pace to the war room, Mac’s called had come as she walked into the foundation (not a great way to start the day by anyone’s standards). Bozer and Riley were already there and gossiping happily; she filled them in and both their jaws dropped, they both started arguing that Mac couldn’t face this alone. But Webber put her foot down, although she had her own doubts about it too, she would not risk her agents for the sake of their mistaken worries, for their very human and understandable worries about their friend. Mac for better or worse was on his own. She gave Riley her phone and told her to track back Mac’s call and see if she could find some kind of connection, any connection with who had taken him as well as find out as much information about the bomb as possible.

Bozer was set to look through the CCTV around Mac’s house (a recent addition after too many intrusions by Murdoc and his little friends). Surely that had to reveal something, Mac most likely had been taken from his home and yesterday had been an ordinary day. The last mission had been over a month ago and Webber in a moment of generosity had given them a month off to recuperate and she thought at least privately to recover from Jack’s departure, while his replacement was found. So that only left abduction from his house. Bozer pushed his panic and his worry to the back of his mind and set to work spinning through the footage at speed, Webber gave each of them extra staff to help the process along. While she got to work calling every major rescue organisation and agency in the area in a desperate bit to try and evacuate half of Los Angeles as fast as possible.

**

Mac saw and heard none of this, he had absolute faith in Matty and her abilities, he knew she could get everyone to safety or would at least try her damnedest to save as many as people as possible. He also knew that Webber was the only one that could keep Bozer and Riley away. They had to keep away from him at all costs, it would just distract at him…and the Ghost would not add any more of Mac’s family to his scoreboard.

No…no, it wasn’t the Ghost, he’d seen him die. He knew he was dead…but Mac did wonder if maybe this was the bomb the ghost had mentioned…the one that was out there somewhere? That he had promised for Mac and his friends? Was this some twisted version of that? It was possible, either way Mac had to try and work out how to disarm it. He hoped Riley would come through with the info he needed which would help, but it was always possible that it wouldn’t be faster enough.

He put those thoughts out of his mind and got to work examining the bomb once again, he pulled away more of the stucko and plaster of the wall in an effort to look for more ‘surprises’ left by his host. He couldn’t see any, but he knew that if this man or woman really was copying the ghost there might be a second bomb, hell there had to be a second bomb discounting the one around his neck and…it was all...Mac forced his mind back onto the bomb in front of his eyes. He got on his knees to examine the metal boxes, one on top of the other. The larger box was mounted on wheels and the other had series of small holes in it. Mac didn’t move anything, he just moved his finger around the edge to try and work out exactly what was holding the box together.

He sighed, all the evidence pointed to the idea that this person was a copycat, but not of the ghost, but of the Harvey’s Resort bombing in 1980. Mac remembered reading about it and being fascinated because they had never managed to disarm it successfully. He was less fascinated at this point being stuck in the middle of it, but…on one level he was still intrigued, could he disarm one of the most difficult bombs in American history with a 2 (more like 1 hour 45) time limit??

**

Bozer skimmed through the footage in and around Mac’s home as fast as he could, his film producer/editor brain coming into it’s own. The ability to power through material was something he could always do when editing his own video and movies, now it came out in a saving the world kind of way. It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for, a darkened figure approaching the house and of course taking out the cameras, there were perhaps 2 seconds of the man’s face and he was gone. He grabbed the miniscule file and raced over to Riley while she was scanning through the photos Mac had sent, he was temporarily distracted from his own find with what he spotted on her screen

_“That’s the Nevada bombing, Harvey’s Resort.”_

_“What??”_

_“One of the most famous bombings in US history, it went off and the FBI didn’t solve it, but no one got hurt.”_

_“How do you even know this?? You know what, I don’t care. How does this help?”_

_“Look the thing about this bombing, is it never got solved. The FBI tried and actually blew the thing up.”_

_“I’m waiting for the helpful part Bozer”_

_“Okay! Okay…okay. Look the theory went that the bomb could have been disarmed remotely, if the switches of which there are like a dozen or so on top could done in the right order. That was how the bomber threatened by the FBI….he was like give me the money and…”_

_“Boze!”_

_“Right.. so I’m thinking if Mac can open the bomb maybe get a look inside, you could design a program to work out the sequence?”_

_“You do realise that there are literally thousands of combinations?”_

_“Thus the computer program?”_

_“I guess…it could work…maybe?? Mac still needs to pry open the thing.”_

_“Right…okay bomb squad. We’ll find his knife or whatever the right stuff is…I’m going to find Matty.”_

_“I’m coming too.”_

The duo ran back to the war room where Matty was directing operations and watching the populace via a heat signature map retreat backwards. The two of them interrupted her and came out with sprawling and frankly half formed plan, Webber listened patiently then groaned. Riley had hadn’t much luck tracking the phone back, the phone calls were registered but the signal that was clearly the perp was being bounced too many times. Bozer ultimately managed to swing it by saying he’d found some CCTV of the perp and they couldn’t do anything until they found the figure. Riley also pointed out that she could and would take the rig with her. Webber added that they would call Mac and explain the plan to him, that it would safer, more sensible, that they should continue to work and keep going, they’d had no phone call from him.

There was a strange moment between Riley and Bozer, perhaps a mark of how far they had come as friends, that nothing was said or acknowledged. They both nodded and agreed with Webber, retreated to the prospective corners as they departed. Then Riley did a speedy detour to the front of the building and Bozer looped round via the vending machines and joined her. They grabbed Bozer’s car (Riley had come on her motorbike that morning) and set off, neither of them exactly knew what they were doing, but neither of them were going to follow orders and leave Mac alone.

Bozer insisted they stop at the house first thinking that knife had perhaps been left behind in a struggle of some kind and to go for a last look for clues. Riley snapped and reminded him of the time limit, but he ignored her. They got to the house in double quick time (thanks to Boze’s only slightly bonkers driving). They pushed passed the Phoenix’s teams that Webber had sent to examine the place and started a search of their own, it was more sporadic and haphazard in one way, but it was the mark of people who knew Mac and knew the world he lived in. Riley plugged her laptop directly into the house’s security cameras in an attempt to find any kind of footage, to her amazement, it hadn’t all been blown up, it was in fact scrambled and retrievable. It was a tangled mess, but that part of Riley’s brain that thrived on chaos and finding a worth adversary was there now, that madness and thrill that keep them all going and often allowed the to come up with the maddest schemes was well and truly going (a characteristic they all shared in some form or another), she would not give up, no matter what. Bozer meanwhile was determinedly hunting around Mac’s bedroom, checking the walls, the doors and peculiar parts that the search teams were baffled by, when anyone tried to ask what he was doing, he just gestured and shushhh them away. He crawled under Mac’s bed and ran his finger along the bed frame, after a minute he came out with a triumphant ha!! And pulled away Mac’s knife.

He came back into the kitchen waving at Riley’s face, she raised an eyebrow

_“Mac always had a habit of hiding stuff in weird places when we were kids. I figured, if whoever this dude is knocked him out when was sleeping, then…well Mac’s knife would have stay put, wherever he buried the night before. It was just a matter of finding the buried part.”_

Riley grinned and grabbed her rig, the beginnings of the program already running and decoding; the clearer shot they could get the faster, they could identify this guy and be done and get him. Neither of them were mentioning that they hadn’t called Mac, they were just going to show up and stay there until the end. Neither of them were mentioning that he’d be furious and they might hinder what he was trying to do, but that didn’t matter. If the roles were reversed, Mac would be no different, he would leap into the fire, unthinking to rescue them. They were simply repaying him. Riley had managed to track Mac’s location without difficulty and some bragging and flashing their Phoenix ID cards had managed to get them through the line of police and agents (and the fact of course that Webber knew exactly what they were going to do and called ahead).

So when Mac was on his knees in the dust and the grey of the dirty room calculating explosive power and what it was take to open the metal box with his hands, he almost jumped out of his skin as their faces popped round the door. Before he could do anything, both of them stepped inside. Much to Mac’s relief an extra bomb didn’t go off, but he was still furious (Boze and Riley had been right about that part) 

_“Guys what the hell are you doing here?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I worry a bit about the pacing of this section, is everyone figuring everything out too fast????


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trio reunites to save Mac, Riley is her bad ass self while the boys bicker as Mac's deep insecurities and fears reveal themselves. Feedback very much welcome

_“We’re here to help!”_ Bozer responded cheerfully doing his best to keep the squeak of fear out of his voice.

_“Guys, I told Matty, no support! You’re lives are at risk. Everyone’s are! I have to do this on my own.”_

_“Mac, we’re not leaving you alone in this. We’ll fix this together.”_ Riley said looking Mac square in the eye, she smiled at him hoping that would encourage him. Mac couldn’t believe what he was hearing, it was madness. Why were they here? Why were they being so stupid? Why were they risking their lives for him? Surely Matty had told them everything. He sighed, this was an impossible enough job without his friends being here. Now he had to get them to leave and then crack the uncrackable bomb all with 1 hour and 33 minutes to go

_“Guys, please leave, seriously get out! I can’t do this with you here.”_

_“Mac we’ve already told you we’re not leaving you here. You shouldn’t have to face this alone.”_

Mac took a deep breath, doing his best impression of being calm

_“Guys, I have too. This is my job, this my…I’ve got to do this. You guys, you don’t have to be here, you don’t need to be here. Look Riley, Boze…if I can’t do this. If I can’t do this…you have to be as far away from here as possible. I…I can’t risk you guys…if this goes wrong…”_

_“So you can risk yourself that it?”_ Boze snapped at him

“ _Look Mac, we both have faith in you. We’re here to help you get out of this.”_

_“Riley please…”_

_“We’re staying Mac”_

_“Look Mac, I...we have a plan…kind of plan which might help.”_

_“I’m listening…”_

_“You remember the Nevada bombing right…”_

_“Yeah…I read about it…this is bomb is like a copycat style homage too it, another reason why you guys need to leave.”_

_“Mac listen, if you can open the bomb, maybe Riley can crack the code? It was all the levers that foiled the police last time? Well if Riley can see them all maybe she can write something? Like a programme that can predict the sequence?”_

_“Riles could you do that?”_

_“I don’t know maybe, there’s only one way to find that out.”_

_“Okay, but I don’t know if I can open this with my bare hands. I mean I would need my..”_

Bozer stepped forward, Mac automatically moved away from him putting up his hands. His friend ignored this gesture and pushed the swiss army knife into Mac’s left hand. Mac smiled at Bozer, both the best and worst friend in equal measure. He nodded partly because he knew neither of them would leave at least not for now. Maybe…maybe this could work, at least he had better odds at disarming the device now. The issue of the collar he was side stepping temporarily, he could feel the metal cutting into his neck. There was in fact a thin red slice across the top of his back with a trickle of blood coming out of it. Mac was also ignoring the headache he was getting from the blood loss as well.

_“Alright, since you’re here. I need you to comb this room, Riles can you scan it? This psychopath whoever he is keeps calling me. I can find wire and obviously this and the details of this bomb, but there’s got to be something else in here. He’s watching me, can you check the room, See what’s behind on the walls? Track the signal when he calls again? Maybe even find the source of the camera? Track the make??”_

_“Of course Mac, I’ll get on it.”_

_“Boze, you wanna help me try and open up a horribly dangerous bomb?”_

_“Sure, couldn’t think of a better way to spend my Wednesday.”_

So the trio set to work. Riley sat herself on the floor and her fingers flew across the keys setting up every surveillance program she could think of. The brothers sat on the other side ready to tackle the bomb. Mac gave Bozer a precise series of instructions which he followed and they slowly managed to pry the top of the bomb off, or it’s metal casing off revealing the many many many leavers underneath. They called Riley over and she just about managed to keep her panic at bay, she brought her laptop and start to scan the device, trying to use what was essentially an x-ray programme or rather a laser programme that Mac had built. It used lasers rather than x-rays, he’d built it for fighter pilots so they would be able to get a detailed analysis of whatever terrain they were flying over. On one of their rare days off, he’d made it miniature and presented it to her (Mac gave the oddest presents). So Riley had decided to see if she could somehow incorporate the technology into her laptop and of course she had managed that too (Mac knew her better than she gave him credit for). Slowly a 3D image of the levers and what they were connected to underneath began to materialise on the laptop. The next thing they did was scan the collar around Mac’s neck to try and see inside.

Very little was said during this period other than a few instructions between the three friends. This was terrifying even for them and their spy lives, the risk they were taking, the fear. The prospect it all going horribly wrong, it span through all of their minds. Bozer pushed the thoughts of his parents from his head, of Lianne and never seeing her again. Riley wiped her eyes at the thought of not being able to say goodbye to her mom and Mac? He was...and he hated himself for this. He was happy he was not alone and guilt ridden for even thinking it. He knew more than ever, that he had to save them his friends, his family. He knew Jack would never forgive him if he let Riley die and he didn’t think he could look Boze’s parents in the eye if anything happened to their one surviving son. If he could save them, that would be enough and his own life be damned. 

The only sound they all really heard was Riley’s fingers typing at furious speed as she built and tweaked her programme. The bomb was basically a locking system connected lots of different levers which all had a separate fail safe attached; one water, one air and so on that would if not inputted in the correct order set off the bomb. But every lock could be broken and if they could just work out the sequence, then well they would be home free. The collar was another matter, she couldn’t see how it was connected yet, it had to be though. Riley watched and waited, this had to work, it just had to. She paced back and forth clutching her laptop. The boys stood on the side-lines. Mac stretched out his aching fingers and his back. Bozer stood awkwardly

“ _So Matty doesn’t know where you are?”_

_“Well she’s probably worked it by now, but no we didn’t tell her.”_

_“Boze, this was stupid I mean really stupid.”_

_“You’re welcome Mac, what did you expect me to do? Hell what did you expect Riley to do?”_

_“Stay put! Do as your told, help from the side-lines…clean up the mess if I fail.”_

_“Clean up the mess? Seriously ? Are we talking the city or pick-up bits of your body that would have been blown sky high?”_

_“Well technically the blast rwould have been so powerful, there wouldn’t be anything to pick up.”_

_“ Gross Mac and not helping.I swear…look. You’re my brother, hell you’re our brother. You’re our family, we would never abandon you.”_

_“But”_

_“No buts Mac. What do you think Jack would do if he was here?”_

_“That was different, it was Jack’s job to look out for me. Whereas you guys, I mean why are you even doing this?”_

_“Seriously Mac? That’s why you think Jack leapt into danger every single time you did something nuts? Because it was his job? For a genius you’re seriously dumb sometimes..”_

_“So why are you even here? I’m…I’m not worth the risk. You’d be better keeping other people safe; I mean I don’t know if I can disarm this thing…I”_

_“I swear to God, it’s like talking to a damn brick wall. Dude you’re my best friend. You are my brother. I would never abandon…not ever.”_

_“Boze..I.”_

_“Mac, if no when we get out this. We can discuss your deep seated neurosis and insecurities all you want, I swear your dad has a lot to answer for. Hell I’ll even get Jack on the phone to explain it to you. He’s one of the few people you actually listen to. But not now, Riley...please tell me you’ve got the computer progamme working.”_

Riley meanwhile who had been painfully pretending not to hear this weird and awkward conversation turned to Bozer shaking her head. She reckoned maybe ten more minutes and she might have something. Fortunately or unfortunately Mac’s tormenter rang up again at that point

_“My my we’ve got new friends at this little party! How exciting. MacGyver, they’re braver than I gave them credit for. I really thought they would abandon you, I mean it’s the rational, logical thing to do. But you do seem to inspire and almost pathological level of loyalty in people. I suppose that why so many people die around your or leave? For their own good. To your companions. I suggest you leave. I’ve got no issue with either of you. It’s MacGyver I want, you’re both free to depart.”_

_“Now listen here you mass murdering psychopath! We are not going anywhere!” Riley snapped, Mac’s eyes widened. She gestured wildly at the computer, keep him talking she mouthed at him. He nodded and pushed his hair back_

_“She’s bossy isn’t she MacGyver, I wonder what she’ll look like in little pieces on the road. All that stylish hair ripped into shreds.”_

_“Listen look! My friends they have nothing to do with this. They’re harmless, the person you’re interested is me. I’m the one you hate, leave them out of it.”_

_“As I said, they’re free to leave”_

Riley and Bozer stood resolutely in place, now they had the bastard (well almost), no way were they leaving now (not that was really even an option for either of them)

_“I guess not. I guess they’ll just have to share your fate. Although I’m intrigued to see if they can disarm my little device, although I doubt you’d let them MacGyver. You’re the arrogant kind aren’t you? Only you can disarm the bombs, only you’re the one with the skill. The wunderkind of Afghanistan.”_

_“I don’t know what I did to you, to make you hate me so much”_

_“I’ve already told you. I’m the ghost, you’re greatest enemy”_

Mac eyed Riley, she indicated that he had to keep going

_“Look you keep telling me you’re the Ghost. But I saw you die, I saw your daughter shoot you and run. Tell me how you can possibly be alive.”_

_“Oh well that’s a fascinating story. But it might have to wait. I’m aware however that you’re friend is trying to track me so I’m going to have sign off for now. I can’t wait for the fireworks, this truly is my greatest creation and you’re friends get to share it in with you.”_

And so the madman signed off, leaving the trio stuck once again.

_“Riles please tell me you found something.”_

_“I actually think I have. Well…I couldn’t track him precisely, but…he’s in the states, even in Los Angeles. The signal it was bounced too many times to get more than that and I mean…it could be a trick. He knew I was tracking him so it could all be a ruse.”_

_“No…no that’s brilliant! I…you’re amazing. Call Matty…send her the coordinates, maybe we can stop this nut job at source.”_

_“Of course Mac! But wait I think the programme’s worked. We might have a way to disarm all this craziness. Look”_

The trio huddled around the laptop, sure enough Riley’s brilliant coding and Mac’s invention had worked together. The bomb was disarmable, but it would have to be done at furious speed. All the levers were designed so there could be no hesitation in between, the failsafe triggers would activate if the next lever wasn’t pushed. Then there was the issue of the collar pulsing around Mac’s neck.


End file.
